1190 ADMINISTRATION AND LEGISLATION [PART V 
Moreover, Imperial validity may be accorded to Colonial 
sxaminations for certificates and marking of loadlines. 
There have been at various times conflicts between the 
Imperial Government and Colonial Governments as to 
merchant-shipping legislation. 
In Canada several Acts! have been amended to meet the 
views of the Imperial Government, and Acts of 1891and 1893,2 
which dealt with loadlines, were never allowed to come into 
operation, as the Imperial Government were not satisfied 
that -the Canadian loadline was sufficiently satisfactorily 
marked as to justify the giving to it of Imperial validity. 
The Act still stands as part xv of the Canada Shipping 
Act (Rev. Stat., c. 113) of 1906, but is not in force until a 
proclamation is issued by the Governor-General, which could 
not be done without Imperial consent. 
Moreover, certain Colonial Acts in Australia have been 
questioned on this ground. But the first serious dispute 
between a Dominion Government and the Imperial Govern- 
ment arose in connexion with the New Zealand Act regarding 
shipping and seamen of 1903, which was reserved by the 
Governor and only assented to just before the period of two 
years in which assent is possible was expiring, on the under- 
standing that the questions raised would be decided by a 
sonference to be held in London? 
Similar questions presented themselves in connexion with 
the Navigation Bill of the Australian Commonwealth, which 
* e.g. one of 1878 regarding the space occupied by deck cargoes, repealing 
(under s. 547 of 17 & 18 Vict. c. 104) as regards all ships in Canadian waters, 
5. 23 of the Imperial Act of 1876. It was re-enacted as 42 Vict. e. 24, 
restricted to vessels subject to Canadian law. Cf. Parl. Pap., H. L. 196, 
1894, p. 3 ; Lefroy, Legislative Power in Canada, p. 642, note 1. As regards 
Canadian collision rules under 31 Vict. c. 58, see The Eliza Keith (1877), 
3 Q. L. R. 143; The Hibernian, 4 P. C. 511, at pp. 516, 517. 
' See c. 40 of 1891 and ec. 22 of 1893. 
* Parl. Pap., Cd. 2483 (1905). A South Australian Act (No. 454) of 1891 
regarding the measurement of ships was never assented to (Parl. Pap., H. L. 
196, 1894, p. 10; Commonwealth Parliamentary Debates, 1910, pp. 4415 
seq.), nor a Western Australia Act, 1896, No. 25 (with a suspending clause), 
which purported to regulate the coasting trade (ibid., H. C, 184, 1906, p. 5).